Crazy in Chicago

by Norah-Jean Perkin

  “Do you see your surroundings?”

  “No. My eyes are shut. I have no will to open them. It’s not important.”

  “Can you tell where you are?” Garnet drummed harder.

  “I don’t know. I have no desire to open my eyes.”

  Garnet muttered something Roberta couldn’t hear.

  “Why don’t you ask Cody if he recalls a spaceship?” she asked.

  “No. That would be one of those “leading” questions he was so hot about. Besides, I don’t think his disappearance had anything to do with aliens.”

  Roberta’s heart sank as Garnet voiced her own doubts. “Why not?”

  “Well, you heard him.” Garnet turned to her. “He said he heard human voices. He thought a man was bending over him.”

  “But he never actually saw the man.”

  Garnet frowned. “I don’t think that matters. It sounds like he may have been abducted, all right, but by people. Not aliens. People. It also sounds as if he was drugged.”

  “But what about the light?”

  “What about it?” snapped Garnet. “Probably he was blinded by some kind of spotlight, or high intensity beam. How do I know? Besides, the light was blue. No abductee has ever mentioned a blue light before.”

  Roberta bit her lip to keep from snapping back. Her case was fast disappearing down the toilet. Only stubbornness made her continue. “But what about his symptoms? The nausea, the insomnia, the rash? Aren’t those consistent with radiation poisoning?”

  “Yes. But—and I don’t usually like to point this out—they also can be the symptoms of a host of psychosomatic illnesses.”

  “He’s not mentally ill!”

  “I’m not suggesting that.” Garnet glared. “I’m merely saying that his symptoms could be the result of anything—including his disappearance. But I also think we can safely conclude that Mr. Walker was not abducted by aliens.”

  Roberta slumped into her seat, the air gone out of her arguments. She looked at Cody, who sat still as a statue. Regret stabbed at her heart. Even if she’d been successful, she would have felt guilty about manipulating Cody to prove her case and build her career. But now that she’d failed, she felt even worse.

  She swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked back the tears starting to fill her eyes. “Are you going to tell him to remember everything discussed during hypnotism?” she asked Garnet.

  “Why bother?”

  “I think you should. He’s tormented because he doesn’t know what happened to him during those six weeks. Maybe knowing even the little he recalled here will help, at least with the nausea and insomnia. Besides, he agreed to the hypnosis. He has a right to know what he recalled.”

  Garnet sighed. “All right. Though why it makes any difference to you, I don’t know. You know he’s going to make us look like fools in the series he’s writing?”

  “Yes,” Roberta acknowledged. “But I still think we need to do the humane thing.” It’s the least I can do, after what I’ve put him through.

  Garnet nodded again. He faced Cody. “Cody, you will remember everything you said, and all the questions asked, when you wake up. I’m going to count to three, and then snap my fingers. At that moment, you’ll wake up. You’ll remember everything discussed here.”

  Cody nodded.

  “One . . . two . . . three . . .”

  Cody blinked. For a moment he looked around, disoriented. Finally he shook his head. He looked from Garnet to Roberta. “So that’s it?”

  “Yes,” said Garnet. “You should remember everything you said during your hypnosis, but I don’t think you’ll find it all that helpful. Your memories were fairly sketchy.”

  Cody grimaced. “Yeah. Surprise.”

  He stood up. For a second Roberta thought he might fall, but he steadied himself on the back of the chair. “If I have any more questions, I’ll call you over the next couple of days.”

  “Certainly.” The ice returned to Garnet’s voice.

  Cody made his way to the door. Roberta followed.

  When they entered the reception area, she reached for his arm.

  “Are you all right?”

  His mouth twisted. “I’m fine.” He reached for the outer door.

  “Don’t you want to talk about it?”

  He opened the door, then turned back. His black eyes were shuttered, his face set. “No.”

  Roberta winced. The door shut.

  * * *

  The thump woke Cody. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and listened hard. A moment later he heard a scraping sound, as if one of the metal chairs on the patio had been moved.

  He swung his feet to the floor. Could someone be out on the patio? There were only three apartments on this side of the building, each of them with a landscaped patio separated by brick walls topped with hedges. The only way a burglar could reach this area was up the stairs to the maintenance plant, up onto the roof, and then to drop down onto one of the patios. That would explain the thump.

  He threw the covers back onto the bed, covering the pillows, then stood up and slipped to the corner by the sliding doors. From this side he could see out the doors toward the wall separating his patio from his other neighbor’s patio.

  He glanced at the clock. Ten after two. He must have fallen asleep within minutes of arriving home from work sometime after one. Surprising, considering he’d stayed at work to avoid thinking about the unsettling questions and emotions unearthed by the hypnosis Roberta had goaded him into undergoing. But now he was awake.

  Suddenly a dark shape crept into sight. Cody tensed. From the corner, he could not make out much. He waited to see what the intruder would do.

  A moment later the door slid open a crack. The intruder squeezed through.

  Cody stared in amazement. It was Roberta!

  He watched as she crept to his bed. Gingerly she reached out and touched the pile of bunched-up bedding.

  “I don’t think you’re going to find me there.”

  Roberta shrieked. She whirled around. “What . . .”

  Cody crossed to the light switch and flicked it on. He squinted in the bright light, then, as his eyes adjusted, regarded Roberta. She was barefoot, and wore a skimpy blue camisole and striped boxer shorts, similar to what she’d worn the night he found her in the garden beseeching aliens to abduct her.

  His gaze lighted on her knees, scratched and bleeding. Blood dripped from the palm of the hand she held in front of her eyes. “What are you—what happened to your knees?”

  “Oh.” She lowered her hand and looked down. “I, uh, I fell onto the patio when I was trying to climb over the hedge.”

  “Uh huh. And why were you climbing over the hedge?”

  She flushed. “I—I needed to talk to you.”

  He didn’t point out the more conventional ways of doing that. Instead, he reached for her arm. “Come into the bathroom. Let’s fix up those cuts.”

  He thought she might object, but she followed him quietly.

  “Sit on the side of the tub.”

  Obediently, she sat down. He filled the basin with warm water and dipped a clean washcloth into it. He knelt on the floor beside her.

  He took her foot, smooth and lithe and cool, in his hand. He couldn’t help noting the glittery blue nail polish before he moved on to examine her knee. Bits of gravel and dirt stuck in the scratched and bleeding skin.

  He wiped at the cut. She winced and tried to jerk her foot away. He tightened his grasp and continued the painstaking job of picking the gravel out of her knee.

  “Why didn’t you just phone or knock on the door?” he asked. He didn’t like the way every nerve in his body seemed to have gone on alert since her unorthodox arrival.

  “I didn’t want to wake you.”

  He looked up from his work, but she avoided his gaze. Dark lashes lowered over her rosy cheeks and her lips pressed together. Curls rioted across her forehead, like a cherub run amuck.

  His fingers dug into her foot. “How thoughtful. So you
decided to sneak into my bedroom and check out whether I was asleep?” He tried to sound bitter, but try as he might, he couldn’t resurrect his earlier resentment.

  She tried to pull her foot away but he hung on.

  “Did it ever occur to you that I might have been one of these guys who sleeps with a handgun beside his bed, who would have shot first then asked questions?”

  She stilled. In the bright bathroom light, her blue eyes deepened. “I’m sorry. I was worried about you. I couldn’t wait until the morning.”

  She took a deep breath. “I’d been knocking on your door all evening. You weren’t home. Finally I went to bed but I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about what happened today, and yesterday, too. You looked so terrible when you left SUFOW today. I couldn’t wait until the morning. But if you were asleep, I didn’t want to wake you.”

  She took another deep breath. This time she looked at him. “I wanted—I needed—to tell you how sorry I am.”

  She looked so woeful he almost laughed. “Sorry about what? That I wasn’t abducted by aliens?”

  “No!” This time Roberta succeeded in yanking her foot away. She rubbed it and glared at him. “Sorry I pushed you into being hypnotized today. Sorry I didn’t tell you what I suspected from the moment I found out who you were. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

  Her hand stilled. She lowered her eyes and her voice dropped. “Sorry you’re so mad at me. And that you think I don’t care.”

  Hope flickered inside Cody. “So you’re saying that you do care?”

  She nodded.

  “But not as much as you would if I’d been abducted by aliens?”

  “No! That’s different,” she insisted. “That . . . you just don’t understand.”

  “You’re right. I don’t. Just what was so important about proving that I’d been abducted by aliens?” He wanted to know, more than he’d realized. “Surely there are all kinds of other people ready to volunteer for the job?”

  She grimaced, and played with the medal hanging on a thin, silver chain around her neck. “You, I mean your case, was so interesting. Ever since I read about it, I had a feeling it had to be connected with aliens. I don’t know why. I just did. And then, well, when you more or less fell into my lap, it seemed like a sign from the heavens. You were my case and I was going to prove it.”

  “You mean you didn’t connect me with that disappearance until I told you?”

  Roberta shook her head. The admission soothed Cody’s hurt pride. It had bothered him, more than he liked to admit, that she might have befriended him and pretended an attraction to him and a desire to help him, only to achieve her ends. But now—

  Roberta continued. “You don’t understand. Sure, there are other cases, but those people all go to Garnet. When he first hired me, it was on the understanding that I’d help him with everything, and eventually conduct my own investigations, maybe even write my own books. I’ve helped him write and research most of his books. But the more famous he’s become, the less he lets me touch anything important. Lately, he’s gotten even worse.”

  She sighed. “Maybe it’s hard for you to understand. You’re a big wheel reporter. Maybe you started small, but at least you had a chance to work your way up from small stories. In my case, I seem to be working my way down.”

  “So why don’t you get a job somewhere else?”

  Roberta grimaced. “You’re right. I should, and I will, soon. I think I’ve known that for a while now, but I kept hoping things would change. It can be fascinating working with Garnet, but not the way things are now.”

  She sighed again. “But it’s more than that. I guess I’m getting tired of being treated like a joke. I know I’ve chosen an unusual field, one that many people think is crazy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a brain in my head. Even my parents and my older brothers tease me and say that one day I’ll outgrow my delusions.

  “I could still put up with that though, if only I had some real, meaty cases of my own, and some recognition for my work. Not a lot. Just a little. But as long as Garnet won’t let me near any of his cases, or give me any credit in the newsletter or in his books, I haven’t got a chance. That’s why I was so excited when I found out who you were. I thought I finally had a case.”

  Cody reached for her foot. He looked at her knee, where bits of gravel still clung, and then up at her face. “So why didn’t you just tell me what you believed? That you wanted to investigate my disappearance?”

  Roberta snorted. “Oh, yeah. You? The world’s greatest skeptic? You would have laughed me right out of your apartment as soon as I’d mentioned what I wanted. You can’t tell me you would have gone to see the psychic if you’d known I was trying to find out if you’d been abducted by aliens. Can you?”

  Cody picked up the washcloth and began dabbing at her knee again. “You’re probably right.”

  “I know I’m right.” Roberta looked him straight in the eye. “But that doesn’t change anything. I should have told you. I should have asked your permission. You were right to be upset. What I did was—” she shut her eyes, “unethical.”

  Cody studied her face. He wasn’t sure why, but he believed her. Just as he believed that she cared about him, for reasons that had nothing to do with aliens and career advancement. He wanted to believe he meant more to her than a published case study and a chance for fame and fortune.

  Unsure what to do next, a new situation for Cody, he continued washing the dirt and gravel from Roberta’s knees. As he dabbed at the scrapes, the intimacy of their positions began to work on him. He noticed the smoothness of the supple foot he held in one hand. His head bent over the task, he felt the heat radiating from her. With every breath, he inhaled her tantalizing scent. With each passing second he became more aware of her disturbing closeness, and its even more disturbing effect on him. He had to force himself not to move his hand higher up her leg, or to stare too long or too hard at the silky skin of her inner thighs.

  He gulped. Roberta didn’t realize how difficult she was making this. Or how his hunger for her, previously doused by his belief she cared nothing for him, had begun to revive and grow.

  “Give me your hand,” he growled, unceremoniously dropping her knee. In other, more confident times he might have acted, sliding her into the bathtub for a spontaneous seduction. But now?

  He gritted his teeth as he worked on her hand. This close he could see the glistening moistness of her full, lush lips. Her warm, sweet breath tickled his forehead. The outline of her round, full breasts under the silk camisole beckoned to him, teasing him with their forbidden wares.

  He swore and jumped to his feet, then yanked open a drawer and pulled out a tube of antiseptic cream. He tossed it at her. “Here, put this on.” He rifled through the drawers for a moment before coming up with some bandages. “Here. Take this too.”

  It didn’t take long for her to apply the antiseptic and bandages. She stood up, then winced.

  “Sore?”

  She nodded. “I guess you’re right. That was a dumb thing to do.”

  Yeah. But not as dumb as coming to my apartment in the middle of the night dressed like that.

  Limping, she exited the bathroom. Taking a deep breath, Cody followed her. “I’ll see you to your door,” he said. “Unless you’re planning to leave the same way you arrived?”

  She shot him a pained look and started for the door. Halfway there, she stopped and turned. “I was so busy apologizing, I forgot to ask. How are you? You rushed out of the office so fast this afternoon, I didn’t have time to ask. Are you okay?”

  “Just great, thanks,” he said shortly. When she looked at him like that, her eyes big and round and full of yearning, she aroused him even more.

  Confusion at his clipped response clouded her eyes. “No, I mean really. You looked as if you were going to be sick. Were you?”

  The thought of the nausea he suffered on the drive back to the office halted his growing arousal. He swallowed. “I don’t want to talk abou
t it.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry I pushed you into that hypnosis. I just wish that it had told you something new, something you could use.”

  “Well, at least we know I wasn’t abducted by aliens.” Despite himself, some of the old bitterness slipped into his voice.

  “Yes.” Roberta paused. “What are you going to do now?”

  Cody looked at her. He knew what he wanted to do. It had something to do with holding her close, with kissing her until he’d aroused her to a fever pitch, with making her want him as much as he wanted her. And more.

  He shrugged. “Go to bed, I guess.”

  “No. I mean about your disappearance. Are you going to investigate it more?”

  He frowned and walked over to the sliding doors. “I haven’t decided.”

  He didn’t hear her cross the room, but he sensed her presence behind him before she spoke. “I’ll help you.”

  He turned. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I want to. Because I don’t like to see you hurting. Because . . . because . . .”

  His eyes held hers. Deep in the smoky, blue depths, he saw uncertainty, but also that same yearning he’d seen before, that yearning that filled him with wonder and sent sparks shooting along his nerve endings.

  “Because?” he prodded. Over the thunder of his heart, he couldn’t hear himself speak.

  “Because I, uh . . .”

  “Because.” He stepped closer and cradled her waist. Through the thin material of her tank top, he felt her startle.

  Not taking his eyes from hers, he slipped his hands under the camisole. The hot flesh of his hands splayed around the cool, smooth skin of her ribcage. She caught her breath.

  Slowly, with gentle pressure, he slid his hands upward, until they cupped her round, firm breasts. She bit her bottom lip. He smiled.

  He pressed his palms lightly over her breasts. “Because,” he said as he lowered his head towards hers. “Because you want me. As much as I want you.”

  His mouth closed over hers. The shock of lips touching lips, the taste of her answering desire, electrified his senses. He pulled her closer, hungry to feel her skin against his, naked as the night.